Intellectual Property Essay

The film industry has been recycling ideas, stories and styles since it was first created. Indeed, literary works have inspired multiple scripts, and a great number of films are remakes, ‘homages’, and sequels. It is thus interesting to reflect on the concept of ‘intellectual property’ in such an industry, where copyrights are omnipresent in every project. This essay considers the role of intellectual property in films in the 20th and 21st centuries by considering its origins, evolution, and purposes, and argues that IP is a necessary concept that could be slightly rethought in order to better meet the needs, in the long term, of the film industry. It will focus mainly on the cases of the United-States, where the first hub of the global cinematographic

It followed domestic debates about the intellectual property of literary works. It is only in 1777, promoted by Beaumarchais, and in 1790, with the Article 1, Section 8 in the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Copyright Act, that the French and American intellectual property laws were created. Since the 1886 Berne Convention, and then with the creation of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization agency in 1967, IP laws have acquired an international dimension, which one can argue is consistent with the constant globalisation of the creative and cultural industries. All IP laws share a common definition of ‘copyright’, characterised by WIPO as “a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works”. The varied copyrighted works include ‘literary works, computer programs, films, music, choreographies, artistic works, architecture, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings’ (Wipo.int, n.d.). In addition, the definition of copyright clearly specifies that only ‘the creative expressions’ of ideas are protected, not ideas themselves . Because both patents and trademarks have an important part in the history of IP in motion pictures, it is necessary to define these terms as well. ‘Patents’ relate to ‘the exclusive rights granted for the invention of a tangible, useful and non-obvious product or process’ (Vaidhyanathan, 2001, p. 18; Wipo.int, n.d.). ‘Trademarks’ are ‘signs, words, phrases, logos, designs, sounds […]’ (ibid.). In the case of the film industry, they are particularly helpful to distinguish studios’ productions. Unlike copyrights, patents and trademarks are not automatic and have a limited duration, although they can be renewed. It is interesting to note that IP laws have been greatly extended during the 20th century, and that they did not apply to